Trade Report: Today, Amedisys Inc. (AMED) Upgrade to “Buy” by Mizuho

Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ:AMED) was upgraded by stock analysts at Mizuho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Monday. The firm currently has a $47.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho’s target price indicates a potential upside of 12.82% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Jefferies Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective (down from $59.00) on shares of Amedisys in a report on Tuesday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Co. reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Amedisys in a report on Sunday, September 11th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research raised Amedisys from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Amedisys has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.29.

Amedisys (NASDAQ:AMED) opened at 41.66 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $42.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $48.26. Amedisys has a 12-month low of $31.16 and a 12-month high of $55.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a PE ratio of 33.98 and a beta of 1.45.

Amedisys (NASDAQ:AMED) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 3rd. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.08. Amedisys had a return on equity of 11.94% and a net margin of 2.93%. The business earned $361.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $361.08 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.34 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Amedisys will post $1.49 EPS for the current year.

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AMED. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Amedisys by 11.2% in the second quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 79,311 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,004,000 after buying an additional 8,000 shares during the period. Capstone Asset Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Amedisys by 2.6% in the second quarter. Capstone Asset Management Co. now owns 8,929 shares of the company’s stock worth $451,000 after buying an additional 230 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA increased its stake in shares of Amedisys by 56.7% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 10,965 shares of the company’s stock worth $554,000 after buying an additional 3,966 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new stake in shares of Amedisys during the first quarter worth approximately $641,000. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Amedisys by 155.4% in the first quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 164,272 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,941,000 after buying an additional 99,952 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.02% of the company’s stock.